The End of the Season Harvesting

The only plants that are still standing in my garden are my broccoli plants and my carrots.  I always pick carrots during the week of Thanksgiving in order to have the freshest carrots possible.  I will hopefully be harvesting broccoli through this week and maybe into December if I am lucky.

So far I have cleaned up much of the garden and I am continuing to harvest broccoli at the same time.  I wanted to get the larger stuff done first which includes the bean trellis and tomato stakes.  These two take some time because the tomato stakes have the ties on them which I have to remove in order to use them for next season.  This is time consuming but is definitely worth it.  The bean trellis isn't so bad to take down and since it is not being used it is pointless to leave it standing out in the garden.

The garden still looks like a mess, but that is due mainly to much of the debris that I have piled into one of the totes or is just in one large pile.  I will be getting rid of this debris in the course of time, but for now I am leaving it in the garden.  I still have some things that I need to bring in, but I did get the harder stuff done first.

For now check out my broccoli plants and heads below.

I did notice that some peppers were also still hanging onto the dead plants.  Picking them right away after a frost is a good way to save as many peppers as possible.

Broccoli and Peppers Continuing to Grow While Beans are Done

Right now it seems like my pole beans are done for the season.  I did pick the last of what I could find on the vines this week.  Eleven pounds is what I got and is much more than I thought I would be able to pick from them.  They didn't look like there was much left, but I guess I underestimated the growth of my pole beans.  Hopefully I can have a good harvest of beans next year.  Check them out below.

Peppers were next on my list for harvesting and there were many peppers that needed harvesting right away.  Many of them were a real good size.  Most of them were perfect size and I can't wait to start using them in the next couple of weeks.  While I did pick nine of them there are probably the same amount or more still growing on the plants.  I would surmise that there are a few more harvests to come.

Broccoli will last for another couple months or so much longer than my peppers will.  I will rely on my broccoli to give me a good harvest in order to end the year on a good note.  I always like to end the year with a really good harvest.  Whether it would be my cabbage, broccoli, or even my carrots which I will pick just before Thanksgiving.  This year I decided on picking my broccoli to give me the best harvest of the fall season.  Right now the heads are growing on all my plants while the heads I have picked are beginning to see side shoots take over.

My Broccoli Heads Reached Perfect Harvesting Size

I didn't think that I would be picking my broccoli heads this late because normally I would be picking them the beginning of October to the end of September.  Even though it is a little later than usual I am still not worried that I can get much more broccoli this year. 

I have picked about five heads right now and I am waiting to pick some of the side shoots that will produce some more broccoli for me to pick.  These shoots are where the bulk of the broccoli will come from.  It is just a matter of time before I get a day with large amounts of broccoli.

Now that my broccoli harvesting has started my eggplants have now ended the season.  With only two left I didn't want to leave them out there too long because the plants were done growing these vegetables and it was pointless to keep them on the plant.  I picked the last two eggplants that began growing about a month ago or less.

Rain Could Really Help My Broccoli Plants

I guess I should be careful for what I wish for because this past week I got plenty of rain.  It actually rained the entire week and I wasn't able to go outside that much.  I did happen to find some time to pick more peppers during the week.  I wanted to pick the last of my eggplants, but that will have to wait for sometime this week.

My peppers are still growing quite well despite the drop in temperatures over the past week or so.  I am sure that this will help out my broccoli as long as temperatures do not drop too much.  They will last all the way until the ground freezes which happens around late November to December.  Here are the two harvests I got from my pepper plants.

Some pretty good sizes that I could be proud of and hope to have again next year as long as I grow the same kind.  I am not ready to start thinking about next season and that will come around the beginning of July.

My eggplants are doing quite well and as I said earlier I will be picking them sometime this week.  Check out how they look in these photos.

I hope to be picking broccoli soon because this is one of my favorite vegetables.  Although it has a bad reputation of being a hated vegetable I think it is one of the best because of its incredible health benefits.  Plenty of vitamins in minerals can be found in these small vegetables.  I just want to give you an update on my broccoli and how the rain this week has helped them and will help them.

I am almost at that time of the season when I have to clean up close up the garden as least for the summer plants that will die with the first frost.